At what point do you stop thinking of it as "home"?

[shropshire 0]

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I'm now living in my 6th state. I grew up in New Jersey and lived there a total of 23 years. I lived in Oregon for 3. California for 5 years then a few years later for 2. Connecticut for almost one now. Pennsylvania for college for 4. And New York for 2. ....

Can't keep a job, eh?

Or keeping one step ahead of the balifs?

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[robskydiv 0]

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So I was talking to someone yesterday and they asked me when I was going to go back "home" (to Canada).. For me it was a bit of an odd question because I haven't lived there in 5 years, so I don't think of it as my home anymore.. I don't know at what point "going back" stopped seeming like the obvious thing I'd eventually do..

It got me thinking, though.. Is the UK really what I consider "home" now? I'm not so sure.. I fit in a lot better, but still often feel like an outsider.. Then again, the last time I visited Canada I felt *really* out of place and everyone kept telling me I sounded British!!! Ha ha ha!!

So now I'm wondering about people who travel a lot. I don't mean just vacationing - I mean real globe-trotters.. Do they ever feel "settled"? Or do they always feel slightly out of place and hence get itchy feet?

Anyone care to share their thoughts??

Home is wherever you have a family.

[Remster 24]

For me, its when my wife and I live.

I travel a lot wioth work, so going back is going back home.

When I visit Montreal (where I grew up and stayed till 23 years old) I now say "Visiting my mom and friends". I still love Montreal, and its still one of my (if not my top) favorite city or place to be visit, or even live in as far as locales, its not home anymore.

Remster

[FlyingJ 0]

I lived in 6 states by 2nd grade, spent 2nd through 12th in Georgia and have lived in 6 more states since high school. I never liked Georgia at first and couldn't wait to leave. Then I moved to Ohio for college and couldn't believe how much I missed Georgia! I will always have a certain connection to Atlanta as that is where my parents and a couple siblings still live, but I have typically adapted to feeling like home is where I live at the moment. While I miss little other than family about the Atlanta area, I do miss the southeast and doubt I will feel like I've really settled until I make it back that way. It will be tough to find a place that can compete with my little town of 9,000 on the Texas coast now though!

Killing threads since 2004.

[mutumbo 0]

ive moved around every few years pretty much all my life, so i really dont have a place that i call "home". i guess home to me is where ever im living at the moment.

Thanatos340(on landing rounds)--
Landing procedure: Hand all the way up, Feet and Knees Together and PLF soon as you get bitch slapped by a planet.

[Baksteen 84]

I left home in 2001 to study abroad (NB. note spelling; abroad not "a broad") for a year.
Now, I live a mere 200 km away from my parents; practically next door for a US citizen, I know, but for Dutch people it's the equivalent of Australia: Far, far away.

I return to my parent's place only a few times a year and while I thoroughly enjoy the quality time I spend with my family, I do not consider the house 'home' anymore.
I recognise the 'out of place' feeling you described - Life in the village goes on and I don't even recognise half the people I meet in the streets, while some of the 'old guard' gives me suspicious looks: Isn't that the [..] kid? I hear he lives in Amsterdam now; he must be involved in shady dealings...

On the other hand, I have a rental house in a suburb of Amsterdam - way too expensive for my salary, so I have to share the rent with two others.
I've never considered that place 'home' either; it's just somewhere I go to eat and sleep.

What is home? It depends not on the place but on the people.

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[Harmless 0]

Never lived in one city for more than 3 or 4 years since the day I was born.

I really hate answering the question, "so where are you from?"

"Damn you Gravity, you win again"

[jtval 0]

Cliche alert:
The best place you'll ever live is where you just were. The worse place is where you just arrived.

I think it has to do with losing your routine/friends/local hang outs.


By the time you settle in at HOME its time to move again. (At least thats how it is when youre in the military.)

I have had 2 homes in my life . NY and LAS VEGAS. All the others were killing time.

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[JohnMitchell 14]

Lived my first 14 years in Texas, followed by a dozen years in Utah. Now I have a quarter century up here in the Pacific NW. All three of these places have felt like home. I guess I'm pretty content up here by Seattle now, but I could move. Home is where I hang my hat, and where ever Vskydiver is.

[jtval 0]

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and where ever Vskydiver is.

Yea, That would definitely make it easier.

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[amstalder 0]

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Never lived in one city for more than 3 or 4 years since the day I was born.

I really hate answering the question, "so where are you from?"

I typically answer that question with "America."

3 years is my max time in one place, and that was in my early teens. I ended up in 4 different high schools and countless middle and elementary school. So to me, home is where my parents are. After college, I figure home will be where my career takes me.

[Nataly 38]

So interesting to hear different points of view!!

It's amazing that people think so many different ways about "home".. Makes me feel a little less weird

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[Remster 24]

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Makes me feel a little less weird

Good luck with that!

Remster

[Amazon 7]

For me it was all of 10 weeks. I left for Basic training and when I came home on leave before flying to my tech school.. so much had changed and so many old friends were still so mired in the past doing the same things they had always done. I had changed and moved on.. and the addage of "you can never go home again" applied from then on.

Many of those same people have had lives very little different than those of their parents.. WAY too much sameness and stability for my tastes. I prefer the life I ran from home to find... traveled the world.. got an education.. found happiness

[kbordson 8]

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Makes me feel a little less weird

Nah... you're not weird. You just need to redefine "normal."

[Harmless 0]

My one 4 year stint was high school (Cottage Grove, Oregon), and my parents still live there... everything else was )

In the last 6 years I've lived in 4 states and Iraq for short time (Even my tent felt like home for awhile)

"Damn you Gravity, you win again"

[amstalder 0]

I just counted, 15 schools. My parents are about to retire in Alabama (frankly Im not too thrilled about that lol)... My little bro is 9, and has only moved 2 times. He'll move once more and thatll be in a month when my parents finish building their retirement home. Lucky little brat

thank you for serving.

[Harmless 0]

I've been in Montgomery, AL for a year now and it does suck :P I really do try to make the best of wherever I live and I think this place sucks. Other parts of Alabama aren't so bad though.

"Damn you Gravity, you win again"

[Orchid 0]

Home for me is where the heart is! In my opinion, home would/should be with your closest and dearest....husband/wife, mom/dad, and/or your children!

"Love is doing small things with great love."

Lacrosse: Legally beating men with sticks since 1492

[lauraliscious 0]

I totally agree with all those saying home is where your heart/family is.

I grew up in Ohio, and all of my immediate family still lives there. I haven't lived there in 12 years (CA for college for 4 years, 5 years traveling in the south, 2 years in Atlanta...) but I never felt at home in any of those plcaes. I always felt that Cincinnati was still my home.

That is until I met my husband, moved to TN, bought a house, got a dog, and got married. Now home for me is definitely no longer in Ohio. It's right here in Mayberry.
If it wasn't for my family I have no idea where my home would be.

Enemiga Rodriguez, PMS #369, OrFun #25, Team Dirty Sanchez #116, Pelt Head #29, Muff #4091

[mpohl 1]

Home is the place that you need to leave when young,

and long to return when old.

[Baksteen 84]

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Home is the place that you need to leave when young every morning,

and long to return when old at work.

Fixed it for you

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[Zenister 0]

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So now I'm wondering about people who travel a lot. I don't mean just vacationing - I mean real globe-trotters.. Do they ever feel "settled"? Or do they always feel slightly out of place and hence get itchy feet?

Anyone care to share their thoughts??

home isn't a place, it is a state of being..

you can never 'go' home, you either are or you aren't wherever you are...

"you can never step in the same river twice"

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[ryoder 1,391]

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you can never 'go' home, you either are or you aren't wherever you are...

"No matter where you go...there you are."
--Buckaroo Banzai

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[bob.dino 0]

I grew up in Ireland. Spent a few months in NY, four years in London, and six years in Australia.

Neither NY or London felt like home, but neither did Ireland. I was rootless for a long time. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

In the last year or so Australia has started to feel like home. That said, I don't have a strong sense of attachment to place. I could be just as happy in France/Spain.

Bet that doesn't answer your question .